Resumen (otros idiomas)

Since classic antiquity, a logical cause for the behavior of psychotic patients has attempted to be found. In this desire to find a rational explanation for the bizarre behavior of certain patients, different methods have been used: from the study of dreams and the cures of Asclepion (or Asklepieion, from the Greek Ἀσκληπιεῖον) consecrated to the god Asclepio and his archetypal snake, to the early dementia of Kraepelin or the symbolism of the collective sub-conscious of Jung. Thus, from the birth of the scientific method of classic antiquity to the current science of our times a multitude of attempts have existed and still exist in order to give an adequate scientific response to these unusual behaviors. At the same time, many studies try to analyze the interpersonal relationships between those patients classified by modern science with the term “schizophrenic”. There is no doubt that the process of recognition of the faces of their equals plays a principal role in the establishment of those interpersonal relationships, this statement being valid for healthy as well as for schizophrenic patients. The core of this dissertation is the study of the electrical changes in the brain in schizophrenic patients, as compared with healthy, control subjects, in order to try to clarify whether or not alterations exist in cerebral activity during the presentation of stimuli of pairs of neutral human faces. Emotionally neutral faces have purposely been chosen to specifically avoid any secondary interference whatsoever due to the emotional aspect of those human faces. We have attempted to answer the question of whether schizophrenic patients react later or not to the stimulus of neutral faces in comparison to the healthy, control subjects...